Under his predecessor Louis van Gaal, fans’ dissatisfaction was a big disruption to his reign – and Mourinho knows that getting their 100% backing will be crucial.

“You know, I think I know what they can give me,” Mourinho said of United’s fanbase. “I think also they know what I can give them.

“Obviously the most important thing are the players and the relation of the players is the bridge with them, but I think it is very important and curious that I have played so many times against Man United and I played so many times at Old Trafford with other clubs.

“There was empathy, no problems and, in fact, I was pushed by that feeling to say sometimes things that my clubs were not happy with.”

Mourinho hinted that managing the club was always a long-term ambition of his and he admits he’d deliberately gone out of his way to say nice things about the club in the media – sometimes to the annoyance of his current employers.

“I remember, for example, when I won at Old Trafford with Real Madrid, I told that the best team lost. Not many people was happy at Real Madrid,” he recalled.

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